


The 7th year

by Emma_grangergood



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Forgiveness, Friendship/Love, Moving On, Post-War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21978085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emma_grangergood/pseuds/Emma_grangergood
Summary: This is a story about Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy returning to Hogwarts after the war. It's about forgivness, friendship and love. Both platonical and romantic.Intended as slow burn but i'm at times impatient so you might be surprised
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I started to write this story a few years back on wattpad. My english wasn't good enough so it was in Swedish, but I actually liked it more than i'd care to admitt. Now i'm making a new version here. This one is going to be a bit deeper, darker and longer though. Please feel free to comment any feedback you can think of!

If there's something in this world you can count on, it's the punctuality and earliness of Hermione Granger. This day was no different. She had arrived at Kings Cross station quarter past ten, walked through the barrier to platform 9 3/4 ten minutes later and was now sitting comfortably in her own compartment on the Hogwarts express. Deeply immersed in her thoughts she didn’t notice how someone slid the door open until she was spoken too. 

“Can I sit here?” said a voice she knew all too well. Except she did not instantly recognise it. The voice of Draco Malfoy was always an unpleasant sneer perfectly matched to his mocking face. In a way she had always been a little bit impressed by how he could match his voice and face like that. Then again a Malfoy only ever showed four emotions. Anger, hate, boredom and gloat. It took her by great surprise to see him there, looking like always while also appearing completely different, because when she met his eyes now she was not met by either of these emotions. Exactly what she saw she could not identify, but the lack of hostility completely threw her off guard. Having seen him like this on every other occasion after the war what made that even weirder. Why was she still expecting him to call her mudblood or try and curse her? She knew it had been long since he acted like that, with his trial and the rather long restoration of Hogwarts. She figured a part of her would probably always react badly too his presence. It was not until a few moments later, when the situation had become truly awkward, that she realised she had not answered. 

“Err, yeah sure.” It came out hoarsely and she had to clear her throat. “I highly doubt there are no seats available in a compartment with purebloods though.” She added a little sassier. As she said this her brains started to come back to her and she became very confused. Why did Malfoy ask to sit in her compartment when the train was more or less completely empty? Did he have ill intentions? His face looked almost ashamed when he heard her comment, but he didn’t say anything. She unconsciously rubbed her arm where her “mudblood” scar was located. As she touched it she shivered and the flashback came to her. Like always she saw herself lying on the floor in the Malfoy manor, screaming as Bellatrix permanently deformed her. However, being used to this kind of memories by now, she quickly pushed them away, once again returning to her surroundings. 

Malfoy’s eyes lingered on her for a few moments before he put his trunk up on the shelf and took a seat. It being completely silent in the compartment Hermione listened to the sound of the platform slowly filling up with students instead. She heard laughter from friends reuniting, cries from mothers not entirely ready to say goodbye to their children, trunks being shoved on board and owls screeching in their cages. She looked at her wristwatch and realised it was only 10.43. Deciding that she was not going to sit there in a quiet compartment doing nothing with Malfoy the entire trip she reached for a book she had packed in a smaller bag. Although right when she picked it up Malfoy once again opened his mouth.

“Have I ever apologised?” it was a question, but they both knew the answer.

“Apologised for what?” just as he had done she asked a question without needing the answer. There were a million things she could have thought of that he needed to apologise for, and she had heard him confess to this himself during his trial. Regardless she wasn’t just going to let him get off easy. Not that she suspected anyone else had done so. 

“Everything. Calling you those slurs, helping you-know-who, not helping you at the manor... I am truly sorry.” He looked genuinely regretful and his voice faded as he neared the end. She could see the shame in his eyes and sighted. 

She had already made peace with his position in the war. After everything she had come to know about him. After seeing the way his father treated him, the way Voldemort threatened him. After listening to his entire trial and hearing the testimony of Harry, she no longer blamed him. Even though she didn’t condemn what he had done, nor would ever forget. Regardless of how much she had thought it was behind her, she had to push back tears hearing him apologise though. Hermione however was not someone to let people see her cry, and this time was no exception.

“It’s okay.” was all she ended up answering and silence once again fell in the compartment. She wasn’t sure it was though. Even though she had left her resentment behind her she did not know what you could or could not be forgiven for. It was a war after all, people, her friends, died in it. She looked up at the face of a boy with all the wrong influences and wondered what she would have done if she had his circumstances. Once again sighing she fell back into her thoughts as the train started moving. This was going to be a long year.


	2. The Hogwarts Express

Sitting in silence with Malfoy was not how she had planned this trip. Ginny, one of her closest friends, and her had decided to try and find as many friends they could and fit them into as few compartments as possible. They were going to eat way too much candy, play drinking games with pumpkin juice and laugh away where they were heading. Where was Ginny anyways? Fiddling with her book but without opening it she decided her options were to say something to Malfoy or leave this compartment and find her friends. The problem was that she did not want to try, and fail, to converse with Malfoy, nor did she particularly want to leave. 

“Do you want to hear a joke?” he had solved her problem for her by saying something first, but the sheer absurdity of what he said dumbfounded her. Clearly, neither of them knew how to make conversation and she started to laugh. At first it was just a giggle but it grew until tears were coming out of her eyes. To begin with this surprised Malfoy, looking completely unsure of what to do and as though she had petrified him. So she wheezingly tried to explain.

“It’s... it’s just so weird, it’s just… it’s just so absurd” she tried and failed to make a complete sentence, but this did not seem to stop Malfoy from understanding what was so weird. All of a sudden she could even see his lips twitching, and in a moment rarer than a unicorn sighting, Draco Malfoy started to laugh. To be honest neither Hermione nor Malfoy had the faintest idea of what was going on, but it had been so long since either of them laughed like this that they refused to stop themselves. 

It seemed as though they had been laughing forever. Hermione’s stomach was cramping and she was gasping for air. Right at that moment the compartment door slid open once again and the shocked face of Ginny Wesley stared upon her. Not only did Ginny know how seldom Hermione laughed these days, but she had never seen Malfoy laugh from anything other than someone else’s pain, and even that was years ago. Hermione tried the hardest she possibly could to pull herself together but she ended up laughing even more. How could she not when she saw Ginny’s face, or when she thought about the situation as a whole. Malfoy had better luck and managed to sit straight at least, but even he was not able to pull his face together completely. Ginny watched his huge grin with amazement and shook her head in disbelief. Then she started to close the compartment door again. 

“I’ll just be back later then” she said as she walked away, none the wiser.

When Ginny had left Hermione too managed to get a hold of herself. She looked up in Malfoys eyes and asked with the most disbelieving voice she could muster.

“A joke? You wanted to tell a joke?” The laughter was still in her voice and the question sounded too friendly, as if they did not have the past they did. Why too friendly you might ask? Because Hermione Granger was not about to let one apology make up for years of trauma, and she had no intention of being friends with Malfoy until she KNEW that he was redeemed. That he was worth it. That said, the ice breaker was a fact and conversation in the compartment did follow. 

Hours later Hermione’s book was still resting unopened on the seat next to her and she herself was still speaking with Malfoy. They had had no more outbreak of hysterical laughter but some friendly conversations and a few very interesting academic conversations. Nevertheless, speaking of school made them both tense and the conversation much less easy going. They were both taken back to years of being enemies, to taunts and childishness. Worst of all were the memories from The Battle of Hogwarts. 

“I don’t know if I’m prepared to go back honestly. It’s just got too much history.” Without deciding to do so Hermione had all of a sudden confided in Draco Malfoy. Instantly regretting doing so she bit her lip nervously and pulled her legs up on her seat. 

“I know, I wasn’t even sure I was going back” Malfoy responded in a more open and vulnerable way than she had expected. Still, no details followed and she just let the silence come over her once again. It did however not last long because just a few seconds later, the trolley lady stopped outside their compartment. Malfoy rose from his seat and walked out to buy something.

“I’d like 6 chocolate frogs and two pumpkin juice please” while he made his order Hermione started to look through her bag for a few knuts, one of the three different kinds of coins used as currency in the wizarding world. She loved chocolate and had brought her own to save money, but was getting rather thirsty. Before she had managed to pull the small coins out of her extremely full bag she heard Malfoy clear his throat. As she looked up she saw him holding out a bottle of pumpkin juice and three chocolate frogs. 

“These are your favourites, no?” he said in a voice that clearly indicated that he already knew the answer. His eyes flickered when she met them and his shoulders was like always pulled way to far up, as if he was stressed or thought he was about to be attacked. 

“Thank you, how did you know?” she said in both a suspicious and surprised tone, as if he had been lurking around listening to her conversations with Ginny about treat preferences. Still when he answered she was even more surprised, because he told her he had read it in a witch weekly article about her. That in itself was not that odd, but she remembered the article he was speaking of. It was this long reportage on her, her position in the war and her future, with the reporter clearly hinting that he thought she should run for minister of magic. In the dead middle of that article, where the paragraphs were the longest she had jokingly answered the reporter’s question about what kept her going during the war that it was the thought of chocolate and pumpkin juice. She had then continued to answer truthfully that it was her friends and knowing what was right and what was wrong that let her move along. Although the entire interview had made her uncomfortable and she had rather just left it on an unserious, lighter note. What surprised her was the fact that Malfoy had not only thoroughly read an article about her, he had actually remembered a small, one sentence detail in the middle of it. Regardless of how much she tried to figure him out he never seemed to seize to puzzle her, because since she was sure he could not care less about her, this did not fit the picture. 

She had finally been able to pull the knuts out of the left compartment of her bag and she held her hand out to give them to him. He wouldn’t have it, insisting that it was his treat. A short, polite and kind of awkward conversation followed, where she insisted she wanted to pay and he said she couldn’t. Nevertheless, she told him that frankly, no one could tell her what and what not to do, and if he wanted her continued company he would have to take the money. So he did. The tension that followed made Hermione regret even sitting where she did and she longed for Ginny to come back and give her an excuse for leaving. Exactly thirteen awkward, horrible minutes later her wish was granted. Once again pulling the compartment door open she asked Malfoy to please give them a minute since she needed to discuss something very important with “Mione”. Malfoy was up on his feet and had left the compartment within seconds, only nodding shortly before he left. Hermione watched his stiff, perfect posture when he walked away before she turned her attention to Ginny. 

“Oh goodness, thank you! I thought I was going to suffocate from the uncomfortable air in here” Hermione said while making sure the door was one hundred percent shut. The look on Ginny’s face was only possible to describe through the memes her muggle friends had shown her this summer, because no words she knew could cover the expression of confusion. 

“What in Merlin’s beard is going on ‘Mione? That was Draco Malfoy that just left, the same person you were laughing with earlier?” Ginny had never been a judgmental person, but that did not mean she had any problem with voicing her opinions. Nor ask questions other people would just ignore. Or press on subjects that were better left alone. As a consequence Hermione had realised years ago that there was nothing to do but to tell the full story, and this day would be no different. She told Ginny about how Draco Malfoy, yes that Draco Malfoy, had first apologised and then offered to tell a joke. How she had just fallen apart laughing, because what did he think he was doing? Finally, she told her best friend about the normal conversations followed by the uncomfortable silences that had been taking turns the last couple of hours. 

“I’m so sorry I didn’t come find you, it was just, dare I say interesting, to speak to him. And then it was so awkward I felt that if I left we would never speak again.” All of this was true, but her biggest concern came down to why she even cared about ever speaking to Malfoy again. Sure he was extremely smart and she did like to hear his opinions on complicated matters, but he was still him. As she had said only a few hours earlier, she wasn’t about to just become his friend. No, as a matter of fact she decided she wasn’t going to speak to him unless he spoke to her first, then she would just answer politely. All was not forgiven. 

The Hogwarts express closed in on Hogsmead station while she was changing into her robes, desperately trying to not think about any Malfoy related part of her train journey. Her ever so over thinking brain however, did not let her get away with this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am totally over-hyping the fact that two (2) people left kudos on this work, but it's okay. I hope you liked this chapter and please feel free to comment any opinions or advice you might have! Happy new year!


End file.
